This invention relates to vehicle bodies, such as trucks or trailers used for highway or city delivery of food products to retail outlets. Quite often, a vehicle is required to deliver a mixed load of refrigerated or frozen products plus non-refrigerated "dry" products. This is typically accomplished in several ways, none of which are entirely satisfactory. First, two vehicles might be used, neither being completely filled. Secondly, a movable transverse curtain or partition might be located within a truck to divide one end of the truck from the other and thereby permit separation of cooled products from that shipped at environmental temperatures. Thirdly, no partition might be used at all, and all products within the vehicle would then be cooled. This is detrimental to certain products which should be maintained at normal environmental temperatures.
This problem becomes particularly troublesome in making deliveries of grocery products to individual markets or stores. Mixed loads of frozen and dry products are extremely common, and deliveries to such outlets seldom involve a full load. Instead, partial loads are delivered sequentially to several stores or markets, each of which might require both dry and frozen products.
This problem has become compounded by the current practice of palletizing loads of grocery products for delivery to individual stores. Palletizing involves substantial savings in labor, but these savings are lost if additional handling of the loaded products is required by the manner in which it is transported. Palletizing makes it difficult to reach products that are located behind a pelletized load, and requires that the palletized loads be removed from the vehicle body in a sequence opposite to that in which they were loaded into it.
The present invention provides a flexible partition assembly adaptable to palletized loads, which provides rear access to both dry and frozen palletized loads maintained in physically separate compartments in the vehicle body. The partition assembly is versatile and readily adjusted to particular load conditions, including changes as the vehicle body is unloaded from one store or market to the next. It also can be rearranged for handling return loads which are either similar or dissimilar from that handled in the initial trip.
This versatility is accomplished by use of a series of movable panels. Each panel is upright and movably located within the vehicle body by suitable support assemblies. Each panel can be moved between a first position juxtaposed parallel to one wall of the vehicle body, a second position parallel to and spaced from said one wall, and a third position is which it is arranged at an angle to the wall. In this way, each panel can be stored when not needed, can form part of a center partition along the vehicle body interior, or can form an end partition as the front boundary of a partial enclosure within the vehicle body. By using a cooling system confined to one side of the partition, a part of the vehicle body can be refrigerated while the remainder of it is maintained at normal environmental temperatures. Both sides of the partition are accessible from the rear of the vehicle body, so that pallets can be removed by conventional machinery. The removal of dry products does not affect the arrangement or removal of frozen products. Mixed loads are easily loaded and unloaded in a preplanned sequence, making it easy to service the needs of several stores or markets in a single trip. No side loading or side access to the vehicle body is required.